I think that used to happen a few years back, not just to monarchs, but a sleeping anaesthetised labour was deemed a good thing. There were masses of problems with it. I dont think it still happens usually, and not in the same way

Queen Victoria used to be given chloroform to knock her out when she gave birth. She considered it miraculous after her first few births with no pain relief and the use in childbirth was widespread. I think modern royals use safer forms of pain relief like the rest of us!

The reason general anaesthetic is not used for labour is that whenever a person is put under there is a good chance they will not wake up. It is only in the 20th century anaesthetics have become more reliable. I doubt any doctor would have risked death to avoid trauma.

Wonder if this comes from the Netflix series The Crown where the queen is drugged and Edward pulled out of her. It wasn’t something exclusive to Royals. It’s called Twilight sleep and women were given drugs to keep them semi conscious during labour. It was horrible and traumatic for babies and mothers.

Queen Victoria, after having seven kids, demanded chloroform for her eighth. This ushered in an era of heavily medicalised births (not for everyone, but also not just for royalty). It was then realised this led to all kinds of problems for babies and mums, and it stopped. Disclaimer: I got that from a quick browse of the internet and a vague knowledge of history.

It might have happened in the past - there was something called Twilight Sleep, where women were given a powerful drug that not only provided analgesia during childbirth, it also erased the memory of birth altogether.

It used morphine and scopolamine, but the latter had some pretty horrific side effects, according to this article:

"Scopolamine caused women to lose their inhibitions, and have no conscious awareness of what was happening to them. The small amount of morphine used didn’t prevent pain, but contributed to women becoming uninhibited, and even psychotic. Many women would thrash around, bang their heads on walls, claw at themselves or staff, and scream constantly. They would either be restrained on their beds, by their wrists and ankles, or put into straight jackets.

Often blinded by towels wrapped around their heads to prevent injury, they would be put into ‘labour cribs’ – cot-like beds that prevented them from falling to the floor. They would remain on the beds, bound and screaming, often lying in their own vomit and waste, for as long as it took for labour to end."

This practice was used in the early years of the 20th century, but soon fell out of favour, due to the side effects, and risks to the baby.

I highly doubt that any obstetrician would perform a caesarian unless it was medically necessary.

I don't believe the current queen did that. I know someone on private phone number terms with her and she's very down to earth and says "fuck" a lot.I bet her lazy mother went for the knock out though.